World of the Mirror
by PhoenixR90
Summary: (Contains spoilers!) Continuing on their journey, the Tsubasa characters find themselves in a strange cave village. And it's finally happened- Kurogane runs into another version of himself! Syaoran also sees his other self reflected in the cave's walls...


"Yay! A new world!" Mokona cheered.

Syaoran, Fai, and Kurogane were used to these words and had lost count of how many times they had heard it from the creature. The travelers looked around.

"It looks like it's one we haven't been to yet," Syaoran observed, though his thoughts were somewhere else.

Fai patted his shoulder. "I know it's still hard to travel after we have just recently visited Sakura-chan."

Syaoran nodded.

"But at least we know that she's doing well. She was so happy to see you."

"Yes she was."

Mokona hopped on Syaoran's shoulder. "It's okay, Syaoran. We'll see Sakura again, soon! We got to see Tomoyo in Piffle World again and also Watanuki and the other Mokona!"

Syaoran patted Mokona. "Thank you."

Kurogane looked around. "Well, I don't see any people yet. And it looks like it's going to storm."

"Why don't we try that cave over there?" Fai asked, pointing.

The four of them stood inside the cave entrance in silence, each in their separate thoughts. Mokona got bored and started to draw a picture on the cave wall. "It's a picture of Mokona and Mokona together!" he said when he was finished. "So even if we can't be in the same world together, we still can be in this picture!"

"Isn't that cute?" Fai said.

Syaoran found himself smiling, but then it reminded him of something sad.

Then they heard a noise from deeper within the cave. They all froze, mentally preparing themselves to fight or run if the case called for it.

Syaoran blinked when he saw the boy approach them. "Hey that looks like-"

"Little Kurogane!" Mokona cheered. "He's so cute!"

"Well, now that's interesting," Fai commented.

Kurogane remained frozen. He had finally run into one of his parallel existences. But this kid couldn't be more than twelve. He wasn't quite sure of how to handle it. Seeing different versions of Tomoyo was one thing, but this was totally different.

The younger Kurogane, however, didn't seem as stunned. "I finally have one!" he said excitedly, running up to him. "I knew I would, someday! Just like Hikaru. Except mine is real."

Fai smiled down at him. "Do you mind telling us what you're talking about? We have just arrived here, you see and we don't know where we are."

Young Kurogane looked at him uneasily. "This is Mirror village. We live here in the caves of these mountains." He thought for a moment. "Since you all are with him," he gestured to his other self, "I'll go ahead and show you the tunnels where we live."

"Wait a moment," Kurogane said sternly. "How do you know I'm not your enemy? It looks like you guys are hiding from something. Are you sure you want to let outsiders like us in?"

"Making things difficult as usual," Fai muttered.

Young Kurogane smiled. "Of course. Now come this way." He grabbed Kurogane by the hand and began to pull him along. The others followed.

"This Kurogane is so much more happier than ours," Mokona said, jumping through the cave. "I wonder if we can trade."

Syaoran tried to keep up his pace with the Kuroganes. "So were you saying that you guys are used to finding look-alikes from other worlds here?" he asked.

"Yeah, something like that," Young Kurogane said. The other Kurogane wiggled his arm free and scowled. The younger one glanced back to see if he was still following and continued. "It's not unusual to see people from different worlds here, but…" He paused, looking ahead. "There they are! Hey guys! Go get my mom! There's some people that she needs to meet!" He ran ahead, waving his arms.

"Yep, we should definitely trade," Fai whispered to Mokona as they all followed after the boy.

Young Kurogane showed the travelers around his village, which was made up of different interconnecting caves with a larger area in the middle. "And the walls are made of special crystals," he explained. "There are even ones that glow in the dark." Then every once in a while, Young Kurogane would show off his new look-alike friend to his neighbors, who would smile politely.

"I hate getting all these weird looks," Kurogane muttered.

"Just smile and show them what a fun person you are, Kuro-pu," Fai teased.

Mokona jumped on Kurogane's head. "Yeah! Just like Mokona!" The creature gave them a big fat grin. Fai laughed, slapping Kurogane on the back.

Young Kurogane suddenly lit up. "Hey, there's my mom!" he cheered. "Hey Mom! Come see who I found!" He ran toward a group of people.

Kurogane's pulse quickened. "I can't," he muttered.

"Running away from your problems, are you?" Fai asked softly.

"This is different! I'm not like you! That isn't me!"

"Then what are you worried about?"

"It's okay," Syaoran interrupted. "You and Mokona can keep exploring. Fai-san and I will go talk to them."

Kurogane clenched his fists and grumbled. "I'm not going to run away… but I'm going to let you guys do the talking."

Syaoran smiled kindly. "Okay."

Young Kurogane dragged his mother by the hand. "Here he is!" he told her.

His mother smiled. "Hello. Sorry about-" She stared at Kurogane, blinking. Kurogane didn't meet her gaze.

Fai stepped in. "We're not from around here," he said. "And your son here insisted that we come see you. I hope you don't mind us visiting."

She took a moment to look into each of the traveler's faces, long enough to make them nervous. Then she took one last glance at Kurogane before turning her attention back to Fai. "Not at all," she said. "Feel free to stay as long as you like. You are welcome to stay with us if you wish."

"Alright!" Young Kurogane cheered.

Fai looked over at Kurogane, who had his eyes closed and his arms crossed, then turned back to Young Kurogane's mother. "Thank you so much for the offer, ma'am. If you don't mind, we would like to look around this place a little more before we decide to stay." He put a hand on Kurogane's shoulder. "You see my friend here can get pretty restless and doesn't really like to stay in one place." Kurogane grumbled.

She nodded. "That's perfectly fine." Then she took her son's hand. "Come on, let's leave them be for a while."

"But I finally found mine!" Young Kurogane protested.

After they left, Mokona poked at Kurogane's head. "Kurgy was sooo nervous!"

"I was not!" Kurogane shouted, swatting Mokona off of him.

"It must be hard for you to see them here, after what happened in your world," Syaoran said.

Kurogane ruffled his hands through his hair. "Why did they let us in their village?"

"In other worlds people don't mind if we visit," Fai reasoned.

"But if they just let just anybody in, they'll be unprotected. It defeats the purpose of a hidden village... There's something they're not telling us."

"Let's keep looking around and see what we can find out," Syaoran said. Mokona jumped on his shoulder and they led the way down a new tunnel.

Fai insisted Kurogane walk in front of him. "So you don't get lost," he said jokingly. Then he turned serious. "It's okay to be a little taken aback by this. We knew we would run into ourselves eventually."

"I don't need this from you," Kurogane grumbled. "But… it's hard when you run into someone who you once were, but no longer are."

Fai nodded. "Yes it is."

Kurogane pushed him to the ground and kept walking.


End file.
